Face-Breaking News: Condemned's Possible Indie Future

What if publishers and rightsholders were more willing to experiment with unused or squandered series, taking chances on handing them to new developers? Square Enix have thought about opening some older Eidos series to third-party developers through their weird crowdfunding Collective thing, I know folks have agitated for Sega to stop making horrible Sonic games and give someone not-awful a chance, and now the chap who owns first-person puncher Condemned is musing about handing the homeless-hammering simulator over to an indie team.

Former Monolith CEO, and current Condemned owner, Jace Hall mentioned the idea in a Facebook post, saying he was often asked if a third game was coming.

“Since I am focused on other things, and will be for quite some time, this franchise is just sitting there.

“I am contemplating finding an interested and proven Indie development team AND PROVIDING IT TO THEM, so that they can take over the franchise and move it forward.

“As an indie, it can be very hard to get marketing/media attention for a title that you work on. This franchise is already quite known, has market demand, and is in an innovative genre/category.

“Should I explore this idea further? What say you all?”

It’s a curious proposition for indie studios. If you want to make a game about punching homeless men in the face and becoming a shouty wizard, you can do that right now anyway. It wouldn’t be a Condemned game, though, and wouldn’t benefit from the recognition that comes with that. However, you would own whatever you created outright. I suppose it’d come down to just how much they like Condemned and want to see it continue.

I’d be quite pleased with more Condemned, but I’m certainly up for other, Brand X games about hitting men in the face with pipes. Either way, really. As long as I get to hammer faces.